{"id":6823,"date":"2024-12-07T19:57:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T01:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/?p=6823"},"modified":"2024-12-13T21:12:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T03:12:20","slug":"6823","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/2024\/12\/07\/6823\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Syria\u2019s retreat, despite Iran demands, continues. \u00a0It looks like Damascus and Tehran have a fight on their hands from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/ktxs.com\/news\/nation-world\/syrian-insurgents-reach-the-capitals-suburbs-worried-residents-flee-and-stock-up-on-supp-president-elect-donald-trump-president-bashar-assad-damascus-syrian-army-provincial-capitals#\">\u201cSyrian rebels reach Damascus suburbs as government denies Assad&#8217;s departure rumors,\u201d<\/a> AP, KTXS, 12-7-24.\u00a0 The leader of HTS is\u00a0 Ahmad al-Shara, better known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, or Julani.<\/p>\n<p>What will Iran do?\u00a0 This is a real crossroads.\u00a0 The biggest state partner in the Shia Crescent has apparently fallen.\u00a0 \u201cReuters reported on Sunday morning local time that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left Damascus to an unknown location. \u2026 Videos on social media showed Syrian soldiers leaving their positions in Damascus, taking off their uniform and changing to civilian clothes. Damascus International Airport is also under rebel control.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/12\/08\/syria-damascus-assad-regime-collapse\">\u201cAssad regime collapses as Syrian rebels enter Damascus,\u201d<\/a> Axios, 12-7-24.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.i24news.tv\/en\/news\/middle-east\/iran-eastern-states\/artc-iran-s-nuclear-leap-extremely-serious-has-no-civilian-justification\">\u201cIran&#8217;s nuclear leap &#8216;extremely serious, has no civilian justification&#8217;,\u201d<\/a> I-24, 12-7-24.<\/p>\n<p>Retreat!\u00a0 \u201cThe evacuations, both by air and across land borders, were ordered from the Iranian embassy in Damascus and several Revolutionary Guard bases in Syria.\u201d\u00a0 See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/iran-begins-evacuate-commanders-forces-132621914.html\">\u201cIran begins to evacuate commanders as forces abandon Assad,\u201d<\/a> Yahoo, 12-7-24.\u00a0\u00a0Here\u2019s a great quote, but anonymous.\u00a0 \u201c\u201cHe [Assad] has proven that no matter how much support he receives, he cannot push back even a few terrorists from his territory.\u00a0 He\u2019s just a moron who couldn\u2019t build a proper government in 10 years, and his forces surrendered without firing a single bullet,\u201d a member of the IRGC-affiliate Basij paramilitary force in Tehran told The Telegraph.&#8221;\u00a0 But he\u2019s a moron Tehran continued to use.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-832323\">\u201cIran evacuates personnel in Syria as rebels further advance \u2013 NYT,\u201d<\/a> JPost, 12-7-24.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cIran began evacuating its Quds Force personnel and military officials from Syria into neighboring countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syria\u2019s retreat, despite Iran demands, continues. \u00a0It looks like Damascus and Tehran have a fight on their hands from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS.\u00a0 \u201cSyrian rebels reach Damascus suburbs as government denies Assad&#8217;s departure rumors,\u201d AP, KTXS, 12-7-24.\u00a0 The leader of HTS is\u00a0 Ahmad al-Shara, better known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, or Julani. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/2024\/12\/07\/6823\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2819,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2532],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-update"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2819"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6823"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6851,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6823\/revisions\/6851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}